I woke early with a fright last Thursday, convinced that I had missed our youngest daughter’s kindergarten transition day.
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As I rifled through school papers on our writing desk at dawn, I wrote out in my head a note of apology to the teacher.
Dear teacher,
Please excuse our daughter for being absent from school on her first day ever.
Her mother was preoccupied and stupidly forgot to send her along.
Please do not fail her; we can, and we will, do better.
Kind regards,
Her mortified mother
Just as I’d signed on the dotted line in my harassed head, my husband yelled out: “It’s next Wednesday, going on the school app diary.”
Though not as lucrative, this news was on par with winning the Lotto. Second division anyway.
On relaying the story later in the week to my sister-in-law teacher, she said: “Yep, second child!”
I thought that’s no excuse, “What about the parents of three, four, five or six kids!?” Full credit, you people are amazing.
Luckily our daughter’s first school transition day is today, November 18.
I am prepared this time and she is more than happy to go. The surroundings are familiar as it’s the place where the two of us pick up her big sister five afternoons a week.
When our eldest had her second transition day four years ago, we took her baby sister, then aged 10 months.
I thought the youngest would be fine to sit through the 90-minute assembly on my lap.
As a three-year-old, our eldest sat through a 2.5-hour Mass in Sydney for her cousin’s confirmation without incident. The only loudish peep came during the responsorial psalm in response to my handing her the wrong colour crayon with which to colour: “I said ORANGE, NOT RED!!"
Unfortunately, our youngest wasn’t up to the colouring stage and was restless from the outset.
Between the national anthem and the end of the first prayer, she was grizzling and fussing so much I had to take her out of the assembly hall so my husband – and the other parents – could hear properly.
We wandered around the school grounds for 85 minutes on a drizzly-grey day.
“I’m not sure she’s cut out for religious education,” I confided in my husband later, “She couldn’t even get through the first prayer.”
Now I still worry she’ll struggle to stay the course of a school assembly with a sports report going into overtime.
On Sunday night, however, I told our youngest how much she’d grown up in the past couple of weeks.
“I know,” she said. “Because I can cut watermelon, text Dad and ring the police!”
I knew she had learnt to text emojis to her Dad recently but I didn’t know she'd phoned the emergency services.
“When did you ring the police?” I asked, cautiously.
“I didn’t,” she said, “I just know it’s OOO!"
“Zero-zero-zero?” I said.
“That’s right, O is a circle and zero is an oval.”
So having come a neat full circle, today is transition day and, boy, did it come around fast. It probably very-nearly explains how we almost missed it!
But if you’re in the school hall for assembly today with a younger sibling on your lap, you must absolutely savour the moment.
In the blink of a winking emoji, your baby too will be starting school.
